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[228]
Now when Archelaus had sent in his papers to Caesar, wherein he pleaded
his right to. the kingdom, and his father's testament, with the accounts
of Herod's money, and with Ptolemy, who brought Herod's seal, he so expected
the event; but when Caesar had read these papers, and Varus's and Sabinus's
letters, with the accounts of the money, and what were the annual incomes
of the kingdom, and understood that Antipas had also sent letters to lay
claim to the kingdom, he summoned his friends together, to know their opinions,
and with them Caius, the son of Agrippa, and of Julia his daughter, whom
he had adopted, and took him, and made him sit first of all, and desired
such as pleased to speak their minds about the affairs now before them.
Now Antipater, Salome's son, a very subtle orator, and a bitter enemy to
Archelaus, spake first to this purpose: That it was ridiculous in Archelaus
to plead now to have the kingdom given him, since he had, in reality, taken
already the power over it to himself, before Caesar had granted it to him;
and appealed to those bold actions of his, in destroying so many at the
Jewish festival; and if the men had acted unjustly, it was but fit the
punishing of them should have been reserved to those that were out of the
country, but had the power to punish them, and not been executed by a man
that, if he pretended to be a king, he did an injury to Caesar, by usurping
that authority before it was determined for him by Caesar; but if he owned
himself to be a private person, his case was much worse, since he who was
putting in for the kingdom could by no means expect to have that power
granted him, of which he had already deprived Caesar [by taking it to himself].
He also touched sharply upon him, and appealed to his changing the commanders
in the army, and his sitting in the royal throne beforehand, and his determination
of law-suits; all done as if he were no other than a king. He appealed
also to his concessions to those that petitioned him on a public account,
and indeed doing such things, than which he could devise no greater if
he had been already settled in the kingdom by Caesar. He also ascribed
to him the releasing of the prisoners that were in the hippodrome, and
many other things, that either had been certainly done by him, or were
believed to be done, and easily might be believed to have been done, because
they were of such a nature as to be usually done by young men, and by such
as, out of a desire of ruling, seize upon the government too soon. He also
charged him with his neglect of the funeral mourning for his father, and
with having merry meetings the very night in which he died; and that it
was thence the multitude took the handle of raising a tumult: and if Archelaus
could thus requite his dead father, who had bestowed such benefits upon
him, and bequeathed such great things to him, by pretending to shed tears
for him in the day time, like an actor on the stage, but every night making
mirth for having gotten the government, he would appear to be the same
Archelaus with regard to Caesar, if he granted him the kingdom, which he
hath been to his father; since he had then dancing and singing, as though
an enemy of his were fallen, and not as though a man were carried to his
funeral, that was so nearly related, and had been so great a benefactor
to him. But he said that the greatest crime of all was this, that he came
now before Caesar to obtain the government by his grant, while he had before
acted in all things as he could have acted if Caesar himself, who ruled
all, had fixed him firmly in the government. And what he most aggravated
in his pleading was the slaughter of those about the temple, and the impiety
of it, as done at the festival; and how they were slain like sacrifices
themselves, some of whom were foreigners, and others of their own country,
till the temple was full of dead bodies: and all this was done, not by
an alien, but by one who pretended to the lawful title of a king, that
he might complete the wicked tyranny which his nature prompted him to,
and which is hated by all men. On which account his father never so much
as dreamed of making him his successor in the kingdom, when he was of a
sound mind, because he knew his disposition; and in his former and more
authentic testament, he appointed his antagonist Antipas to succeed; but
that Archelaus was called by his father to that dignity when he was in
a dying condition, both of body and mind; while Antipas was called when
he was ripest in his judgment, and of such strength of body as made him
capable of managing his own affairs: and if his father had the like notion
of him formerly that he hath now showed, yet hath he given a sufficient
specimen what a king he is likely to be, when he hath [in effect] deprived
Caesar of that power of disposing of the kingdom, which he justly hath,
and hath not abstained from making a terrible slaughter of his fellow citizens
in the temple, while lie was but a private person.

Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.

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